Herman Cain Blasts Media ‘Nonsense’

Herman Cain has had enough. Caught in a 10-day swirl of accusations over past sexual harassment, Mr. Cain is lashing out at the newspapers, websites and TV stations that have dug into the evolving scandal.

In a 917-word essay published on a new campaign website, caintruth.com, the GOP presidential candidate accuses the media of being “fundamentally unserious.”

Exhibit A, he says, is how the media “published anonymous, ancient, vague personal allegations against me.”

What Mr. Cain doesn’t mention is how, in the weeks before the harassment allegations came to light, he appeared almost daily on various cable television shows and conduced many interviews, helping to fuel his campaign and his rise in the polls.

In the essay, titled “Media obsessed with nonsense; voters and I are not,” Mr. Cain portrays himself a fundamentally serious person “seeking the opportunity to do a serious and very important job.”

That pursuit was then interrupted by a media, he says, that emphasizes “‘gaffes,’ gotcha questions and time devoted to trivial nonsense.”

But Mr. Cain notes that the ensuing storm hasn’t knocked him off course. “Since the media went bananas over this so-called story, my schedule has not changed in the slightest,” he says. “I have continued to make all planned public appearances. I have continued to answer questions about my 9-9-9 tax reform plan. I have continued to do everything else that our strategy proscribes.”

Mr. Cain does offer an elliptical self-defense against the ballooning sexual harassment allegations, which have now come from at least four separate women. The defense: He was the boss of thousands. And some of them may complained about him from time to time.

“Consider: I held various executive positions in corporate America for several decades,” he writes. “I had thousands of employees working for me. I can’t even begin to recall how many conversations I had with people during that time, how many directives I gave, how much friendly banter might have taken place….At some point during a career like this, someone will not like things you do, or how you do it. Someone will complain.”

“That is just the nature of things if you’ve ever done much in your life,” he says.

Mr. Cain goes on to dissect the criticism of how he and his campaign have handled the crisis since the harassment story broke more than a week ago. But he’s not playing by the usual rules, he says.

“Contrary to the belief of experts, so wise and learned in the ways of politics, I do know what the established rules say I am supposed to do. I simply refuse to do it. That’s because the rules are ridiculous, and they produce leaders like Barack Obama, who play the political game like experts but govern like complete incompetents,” he writes.

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